The present disclosure relates to a molding apparatus that forms a molded object using a powder material according to a rapid prototyping technique, a powder removing apparatus for use in the molding apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a molded object.
A molding apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-248691 has a lamination molding unit 20, a powder removing unit 30, and the like. In the lamination molding unit 20, a lamination molding operation is performed to form a molded object 91 on a tray 9. The tray 9 is moved downward by a tray conveying part 50. After the molded object 91 is formed in the lamination molding unit 20, the tray 9 is moved downward. Then, the molded object 91 is subjected to powder removing processing in the powder removing unit 30 (see, for example, paragraphs [0060] and [0070] and FIGS. 1, 4, and 7A and 7B of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-248691).